Going Beyond Roles

Mother, father, child, teacher, student, friend, helper, worker... We learn to play roles with others from the time we are very young. Knowing how to be creates comfort, familiarity, the security of agreed-upon forms of communication.

Stepping beyond roles into a deeper level of who we are takes us into the unknown - what will we say? What will we be like? It involves the sense of risk until it becomes clear that this risk is life itself, a way of being that is more honest, spontaneous and free.

Stepping beyond roles does not mean leaving our moral center and abandoning inner guidelines that govern behavior. What it involves, more than anything else, is a connection with our deeper self - our sense of truth which is always positive and includes our inner moral compass. This sense of truth has always been with us, waiting to be activated. It is what remains when roles diminish. It is what remains when defensiveness is gone. In its essence, it is the truth of love.